Badger, Charlotte (fl. 1806–1808)

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Badger, Charlotte (fl. 1806–1808)

New Zealand convict. Born Charlotte Badger, c. 1778 (baptized July 31, 1778), in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England; died after 1816, perhaps on Island of Tonga in South Pacific; dau. of Thomas and Ann Badger; children: 1.

Convicted of felony housebreaking and sentenced to 7 years deportation, arrived in Port Jackson, Sydney, Australia, aboard convict ship (1801); served 5 years at Parramatta Female Factory, where she gave birth to a daughter; assigned as servant to settler in Hobart to complete sentence, boarded Venus with other convicts for Tasmania (1806); was among those who seized the ship in Port Dalrymple and were put ashore at Rangihoua in Bay of Islands, where she lived among the Maori and became one of 1st white women to settle in New Zealand; may have later accepted passage to Tonga in South Pacific.

See also Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (Vol. 1); Angela Badger, Charlotte Badger, Buccaneer (historical fiction; Indra, 2002).

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